“Our culture worships attention. We assume that, when we’re faced with a really hard problem, the best response is to stay focused, to lavish the dilemma with deliberate thought. … Is distractability always a bad thing? The answer turns out to be quite complicated. … The problem isn’t distractibility per se—the problem is distractibility coupled with a failure to curate our thoughts, to monitor the relevancy of whatever is loitering in working memory. Think of the internet like an epic cocktail party, filled with chattering 24/7 conversations. Our goal shouldn’t be to ignore everything beyond earshot—that would inhibit our creativity…”
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Distraction Aids Creativity
While we consider the ability to ignore distraction crucial to a productive life, recent research shows that creativity is aided by the intervention of seemingly irrelevant occurrences.
Monthly Issue
April 2026
In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.
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